Conference Bonus a la Kevan

As many of you already know, Kevan Atteberry rocks. He has illustrated award-winning books like

FRANKIE STEIN by Lola M. Schaefer

and

TICKLE MONSTER by Josie Bissett.

In addition to being an illustrator, he's a writer, a graphic designer, and a Flash animator. Best of all? He's a really nice person.

Kevan sometimes posts pictures of his art on Facebook, much to the delight of his friends. In February, he posted a piece I knew my teenage daughter would love. Knew. So I called her to the computer.

She was like, "Aaaah!! I want that for my wall!!"

I should probably tell you my daughter really likes pigeons. When we went to NYC a few years ago, she named the pigeons she came across. Kevan's picture has adorable pigeons in it, and they're eating candy hearts a man is feeding them. It's fabulous! It makes me want to know all about the man in the picture. I want to see the scenes that led up to that moment and where he'll go next. It's one of those pictures you feel in your heart. And my daughter loved it.

Fast forward a couple months to the SCBWI Western Washington Conference in April. My friend Barb and I were talking with Kevan, and I told him about my daughter's reaction to that picture.

Guess what!

Kevan said he had a copy of it with him at the conference, and my daughter could have it!! 

Super excited, I thanked him like crazy--and immediately asked if he'd sign it, too. (Note: I'm not normally a give-me-an-inch-and-I'll-take-a-mile kind of gal, but can you imagine what a cool gift that would be for the girl who wanted it on her wall? And to have it signed by Kevan?!)

When we bumped into each other the next day, he brought it to me! Looky, looky, looky!

© K.J. Atteberry, used with permission

The first thing I did when I got home from the conference was give the picture to my daughter. She was sooo excited! We're going to frame it and get it where it belongs: on her wall!

Thank you, Kevan!!

* * *

You can learn more about Kevan and his many talents at his website! A little bird told me (maybe it was a pigeon!) he'll soon have a blog there as well!

SCBWI Western Washington Conference 2012

I spent last weekend at SCBWI Western Washington's 21st Annual Writing & Illustrating for Children Conference, "A Parade of Words and Pictures."

I enjoyed the entire weekend, but one of my favorite parts was Matt de la Peña's pre-conference fiction intensive on dialogue. Mr. de la Peña gave us so much to think about--both inside and outside the quotation marks--while writing scenes. I was extremely impressed with his approach to craft. I read WE WERE HERE last  year, and it's a book that comes to mind again and again--which says a lot about his writing. If you ever have the opportunity to hear him and learn from him, go for it!

The Editors/Agents/Art Directors Panel was great. Moderator Kim Baker asked excellent questions, and the panelists' genuine love of kid lit could be felt when favorite children's books were discussed. It was very cool.

Melissa Sweet's keynote was super inspiring to me. She showed a video as she spoke, and we saw her wonderful studio. She had so many great things to share, but one item really stuck with me: when she's inside her studio, she is working. Simple, right? But after a slightly crazy winter when I was studying for a teaching exam (and passed!) and my family had an extra amount going on, my writing hours became harder to keep. Melissa Sweet's talk and Bruce Hale's keynote completely motivated me to return to my get-to-work-right-away and no-e-mail-while-writing schedule. I'm actually pretty excited about it.

I loved reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Next time I'll do better!

Nothing to do with the conference, but it has been sunny here in Washington! Woo-hoo! I'll end with a photo of my husband, Jim, and Thistle, the shameless sun worshiper. We often stop at a coffeehouse on the weekend, and we bring the dogs. Pepper loves the idea of going, but her fear of dogs keeps her on edge--and near our feet. (She seems to think she and Thistle are human beings.) Thistle, on the other hand, spreads out, assuming people will step around him. And people are so nice, they do--and they even smile at him as he hogs up the sidewalk.

Thistle and Jim relaxing in the sun

What have you been up to the last couple weeks? Could you, like me, push yourself a bit more with your writing schedule or are you already in a good place? Is it warm where you are?

What's Hot at Eagle Harbor Book Company

I met once again with bookseller Victoria Irwin to find out which YA and children's books are currently selling well at Eagle Harbor Book Company. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, Eagle Harbor Book Company is an awesome independent bookstore here in Washington.

Always helpful and friendly, Victoria was happy to share EHBC's top ten children's and YA titles from last week. Here she is displaying one of the books from the list, TO CATCH A MERMAID by Suzanne Selfors.

In the photo, she's also holding a black toy bird from the children's section. I still, by the way, think Victoria the Bookseller should be an action figure. The toy bird could be one of her many accessories!


Now to the list!

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins



CATCHING FIRE (Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins



MOCKINGJAY (Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins



MONSTER by Walter Dean Myers



TIME CAT: THE REMARKABLE JOURNEYS OF JASON AND GARETH by Lloyd Alexander



KINGDOM KEEPERS #1: DISNEY AFTER DARK by Ridley Pearson



THE DUCKLING GETS A COOKIE!? by Mo Willems



SCORPIA RISING (Alex Rider #9) by Anthony Horowitz



TO CATCH A MERMAID by Suzanne Selfors



THE EXTRAORDINARY EDUCATION OF NICHOLAS BENEDICT (The Mysterious Benedict Society) by Trenton Lee Stewart, illustrated by Diana Sudyka



Thank you, Victoria, for taking the time to help me!

Have you read anything wonderful lately? What was it? A great book I just finished was INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai. So beautiful and poignant! I loved it!

Please note: I won't be posting next weekend because I'll be at SCBWI Western Washington's annual writers' conference. I'll see you the next week, though! Happy writing!

Ch-ch-changes

One of my current projects is a young adult manuscript I'm rewriting as middle grade. While I've been working on YA and MG projects the ten or so years I've been writing, changing a novel from YA to MG is something new to me. It's tricky, shifting a pre-imagined, fully fleshed out book into a different form. In fact, it has been quite the wrestling match. Last week my manuscript was beating me, but this week I'm winning! Woo-hoo!

There are oodles of changes I'm working on to make my new protagonist younger. She even has slightly different goals from the original main character's. I obviously want her to feel authentic. I'm taking the premise and some of the pieces of my original story and giving my younger main character a journey of her own.

This experience is helping me grow as a writer. I'm sure of it! It's making me think in a more concrete way about what makes a book YA or MG.

How about you? Have you ever rewritten a project, changing it so it will reach a different age group? Otherwise, what are some of the biggest changes you've made to a manuscript?

As a side note, have you heard the acoustic version of "We Are Young" by Fun? It's pretty cool.

Have you seen it?

Today's Wall Street Journal says THE HUNGER GAMES movie grossed an estimated $155 million opening weekend in North America. Holy post-apocalypse, Batman. That's a lot of dough. Isn't it awesome that a YA novel fueled the excitement behind those ticket sales, that it all started with a book?


I went to the movie Saturday afternoon, and I loved it. I thought the casting was phenomenal, and Jennifer Lawrence channeled the soul of Katniss. The movie generally stayed true to the book and, without giving any spoilers, I liked the way they worked in the important pieces of backstory. Of course the Reaping scene made me cry.

Have you seen it? If so, did the movie measure up to the book for you? If you haven't seen it, do you plan to? What film adaptations do you think were done well?

SCBWI WWA's March Professional Series Meeting

SCBWI Western Washington's monthly professional series meeting was last week. Kim Baker, one of our region's fabulous leaders, kicked off the evening with the mini-session "What's So Funny? A Look at Humor in Children's Books and YA." Kim spoke about the many ways kid lit authors and illustrators use humor in their work. Talk about learning from an expert! Kim is hilarious in real life--and super sweet! Her debut, a middle grade novel titled PICKLE, will hit shelves in September.

Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan
September 2012

YA author Denise Jaden led our main program, "With a Heavy Heart: Writing Grief in Fiction." She said grief isn't a story in itself, but writers can use it to push things further. She spoke about which stages of grief can enhance a story and which ones can bring it down. Denise knows about writing grief authentically. Her first two YA novels, LOSING FAITH and NEVER ENOUGH, deal with grief and loss.

Both speakers gave us plenty to think about, things to apply to our own work.

Does your work-in-progress have humor in it? Grief? Both? What is the intended age group? Mine is a humorous middle grade, but it has a thread of grief I'm weaving through it.

Have you hugged your critique group today?

My husband and I went to Old Navy yesterday, and an employee handed me a rolled up piece of paper in honor of an event they were having for women. The paper said, "We think you're perfect just the way you are."


Very nice sentiment, though it made me chuckle. I realize I'm missing the point, but it's completely meaningless. Nobody there knows me, my little paper scroll was one of many that said the exact same thing, and it was handed randomly to me.

That said, nobody wants to be critiqued as they walk into a store. Imagine how traumatic shopping would be if store employees handed out slips of paper that said things like "You really shouldn't have been so grouchy this morning," "Tweezers are your friend," or "Ever heard of a breath mint?" Yeah, I'm totally fine with my "We think you're perfect just the way your are" note from Old Navy. But at critique group? That wouldn't fly. That's tweezer-, breath mint-, Clearasil-, fill-in-the-ugly-fixer-time.

This week I have a critique group meeting. I love my critique group! Like you in your groups (or with your beta readers), we read each writer's pages, really think about them, and give thoughtful feedback on what's working and what's not. It's meaningful, and we learn from it. I leave our meetings fired up, eager to improve my work-in-progress as soon as I get home. I hope to give as much as I receive, though that's a tall order since I receive so much.

Critique partners support us and guide us whether we're soaring or sinking in a business that can have the highest highs and the lowest lows. They're priceless. Thankfully, our critique groups critique and make us better writers. They don't blow sunshine our way and tell us our work is perfect the way it is.

Here's to our critique partners, the awesome people in the trenches with us, the ones who are watching our backs--and our saggy middles! Feel free to give a shout-out to yours!

I'll start! Thank you, Margaret and Jen! You two are brilliant! xo